


Flash

by blenalela



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Dogs, Kinda fluff, Melbourne, Reuniting with Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 16:01:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21059357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blenalela/pseuds/blenalela
Summary: Hoosier stays behind in the cricket stadium while the others roam the streets of Melbourne. But luckily, he finds an old friend there.





	Flash

**Flash**

****

Melbourne was like Guadalcanal.   
Except there were no bombs, no chance of dying every second and also no rain.  
But it was hot. And it was not home.   
It was just another part in this odyssey he got himself into by enlisting to the USMC.  
Bill saw no reason as to why he should mix in with the Melbournians. Sure as hell they’d soon carry his ass and the asses of the others over to another shithole to fight against the Japs, though the more prominent enemy were of course the goddamn mosquitoes.  
Even if he found a girl (which he had close to no interest to), he’d just fuck her and leave her and never see her again.   
He supposed some would call him mellow and boring, and maybe they were right; but he was no goddamn monster to impregnate some lady and then just leave her with the hassle of having a child as a single mother.

Instead of roaming the streets with the others, he stayed in the cricket stadium, catching up on some sleep. Almost nobody was there, so he had a lot of time alone. He had to admit that this was by far not something he was happy about.   
Being alone meant no one to talk to.  
No one to talk to meant spending his time thinking.  
Thinking meant reliving Guadalcanal.  
And Guadalcanal meant hell and back.  
Most prominently on his mind was the shelling they had to endure not long before they got shipped off down under. He wondered what had become of his dog. He had spent the whole rest of their engagement on this terrible island with him. Hell, Hoosier even named the boy, though the creativity behind it was fairly arguable. He named him Flash, after the exploding bombs and the accompanying flashing lights.   
It was the one thing that connected them both, that terrible night on Guadalcanal.

Leckie and the others had long left; Leckie himself presumably ran off to his little girlfriend, Chuckler and the rest should be in one of the various pubs lining the streets of the Australian city. Bill assumed it must’ve been around three in the afternoon. He saw some guys from other Marine Divisions, no one from his though. That one Marine who got awarded the Medal of Honor a few days ago was also out of the house.  
It was silent. He hadn’t been greeted with silence in such a long time. On the Canal there had always been noise. Shells, grenades, guns, and the goddamn buzzing of the goddamn mosquitoes.   
But the stadium was quiet at all times (except for when the MPs thought it was a great idea to wake them with fanfares).  
But thanks to that silence, Bill’s ears pricked up on some quiet whining which definitely belonged to a dog. No, Bill would even go as far as to say it was Flash. 

He got up and followed the sounds. And in the end, he found he was right.   
There he was, his little, black and brown companion, locked in a shelter and whining heartbreakingly.   
“Hey, buddy!” Hoosier smiled and walked over to the shelter. Flash let out a small woof as his favorite human in the whole USMC came over to him, sticking his hand through the railings keeping him contained and started to scratch his ears. The dog closed his eyes and leaned into Bill’s touched which made the blond man huff out a chuckle.  
“What are you doing in here, hm, buddy?”  
He looked around. Flash’s shelter wasn’t really locked. Presumably there was no real lock they could’ve used, so they simply barricaded the door with a plank.  
Hoosier removed the plank and freed the dog from his prison cell. Thankfully, he got out and jumped up Hoosier’s body, resting his paws on his chest and trying to reach his face to give it a few, good licks.   
“Hey, I’ve missed you too, good boy!” Hoosier laughed, petting Flash’s head before gently putting the dog back on the ground.

Bill decided to take the dog back with him. Flash had spent every night on the Canal with him in his foxhole, so the Marine was rather positive he would stay right by his bed here as well. And little Flash would definitely sleep better if he was back with his friend.  
They started with chilling out a bit, Flash resting so close to Bill’s bed that the tall man could easily scratch him behind his ears if he reached down and Bill dozing a bit. He felt a lot calmer now that he had someone by his side and fairly enjoyed getting some real rest.  
In the evening, Flash started to stir and pace up and down the length of the bed.   
“What’s up, buddy? You gotta take a dump?”  
He got up, the dog following him back into the huge hallways under the field. Suddenly the dog ran around a corner, out of Hoosier’s vision.   
“Hey, boy, come back here!” He sped up his steps but as soon as he rounded the corner Flash had disappeared behind, the dog came back, carrying a ball in his mouth.  
Another smile spread on Bill’s lips. “Don’t say you’re just bored?”  
He took the ball from Flash’s mouth and walked back out onto the field.  
“Come on, let’s play.”

During sunset, Runner came back, without Chuckler, Phillips or Gibson. He walked up to Bill who was sitting on the green grass, leaning against the wall limiting the field.   
“What’re you up to?” He sat down next to him.  
The same moment, Flash came running, ball sticking out of his mouth, happily stopping in front of Hoosier.  
“Aw, don’t say you found your little friend again!”  
Bill didn’t answer, he simply took the ball from Flash and threw it again. With a loud bark the dog sprinted after it, trying to catch it mid-air after it bounced off the ground.  
“Are you even allowed to play with him on here?”  
The blonde shrugged and continued playing with the dog. What did he care for if the green got destroyed? Finally he had found his best friend again, he would not let the boy down because of some Australians having a fit about a heap of grass.  
No, they had been there for each other during the shelling, Flash had been there for him when he was sick with malaria and now it was Bill’s turn to be there for the dog and to give him a great time in Melbourne too.


End file.
